Yakuza Of the End Has Some Wacky Zombie Types

Waitresses, convenience store clerks and Japanese celebrities become undead for the new Yakuza game.

By Anoop Gantayat

Yakuza 4 followup Yakuza Of the End differs in one key area from its predecessors: it's a zombie game.

While you still do all the stuff you're used to doing in a Yakuza game, like visiting a hostess club, taking on mini quests, and having a beef bowl at Matsuya, the story is set against a zombie infestation in Kamurocho. Taking control of Kazuma Kiryu, Shun Akiyama, Goro Majima and Ryuji Goda, you'll face off agains these zombies through a new gun shooting gameplay system.

The game has all sorts of zombie types, Sega revealed today.

There's the security guard type, former building security guards who were left behind to guard their buildings when Kamurocho was closed off by the Self Defense Force following the zombie invasion. They became zombies too.

There's the convenience store type, who depending on the shop may smell like fried chicken.

You'll also find waitress type zombies. They were attacked while on the job. Sega says that their dream is to marry a government employee, and one of their big worries is infidelity by their boyfriends.

The game has celebrity zombies too -- that is, zombies based off celebrities. Talents Esper Ito, David Ito and Terry Ito will appear in the game in zombie form. Below are some shots of Esper playing table tennis with Kazuma and apparently serving as a target for the game's fishing mini game.

Not all the zombies are comical. And not all the zombies are actually zombies! The game has more advanced types of enemies, referred to as "mutants" and "experimental types." These look less less like humans and more like monsters, and they have special abilities in terms of speed and power.

You can face off against some of these zombies right now if you have access to a Japanese PlayStation Store account. A demo of the game lets you take control of Shun Akiyama in the opening moments as zombies first begin to appear in the city.

For everyone else, check out our media gallery for even more zombie shots, along with some pics of someone who may look a bit like a zombie but is actually an in-game version of talent Jun Komori, who plays the role of massage therapist Jun (having celebrity massage therapists has become a tradition for Yakuza).

The final version of Of the End hits Japan on the 17th. A release outside of Japan has not yet been announced.